An Unexpected Return
by Caskett.Edits
Summary: Richard Castle, a New York Times Bestselling Author, returns to New York early from his cross-country book tour with frightening news. The only person he can turn to is Detective Kate Beckett. Soon the night turns sour and they're fighting for their lives.
1. Coming Home Party

There was a knock at her door. Startled and not expecting any visitors, Kate slowly rose from the stool at her counter, grasped her gun tightly behind her back and made her way to the front door. After her apartment was broken into a few weeks ago, she had been extra jumpy whenever she heard anyone at her door. Kate looked through her peephole, and an anxiously waiting Richard Castle stood on the other side of her door. She quickly unlocked the door and let the writer in.

"Rick, what are you doing here? I thought you were on a book tour?"

Rick sighed deeply, slowly shaking his head he stared into her gorgeous Hazel eyes and fighting back the tears that were coming. "I had to cancel the rest of my tour. Something happened" he said as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Kate didn't know what was wrong but she knew, at that moment, she just needed to be there for him. She slowly took a step forward with her arms open. Rick tentatively took a step back, gently bumping into the door. He winced and made a quiet moan. He was in so much pain. Kate couldn't tell how much was physical or purely emotional, but she could see there was something terribly wrong.

"Castle, it's okay, I'm here for you. Whatever happened, you can tell me, always," Kate said as she took a step back to give him some space, but she held out her hand to him.

He gently reached for her hand and at that moment, he understood exactly what Kate had meant. Just like he had been there for her after she shot Coonan, her only lead in her mother's case, she would be there for him.

"It's about my dad. Remember CIA agent gone rogue sort of thing? Well his past caught up with him and it soon came barreling onto my doorstep." Kate squeezed his hand to show her understanding; she turned and led him to the couch.

"You go sit down on the couch and I'll get you something to drink. And I want you to tell me about your trip. Okay?" Kate whispered into his ear with a clear sense of worry in her voice. Castle sat on the couch with a thud, showing how exhausted he was from his ordeal. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair to combat his wariness. Kate walked back to the couch with two glasses and the bottle of red wine she saved for special occasions, and to Kate, having Castle being able to open up with her about his father was a special occasion.

"Here," said Kate as she handed him the half-full glass of wine she had just poured. "I can see this has been tough on you; take as much time as you need, drink some wine, and take a deep breath." Kate folded one leg under herself so she could face Castle. She took his hand and squeezed it lightly for encouragement. Castle looked up into Kate's eyes and forced a closed-mouth smile.

"Thanks," he mumbled dropping his head again. He took a sip of his wine and put down his glass. Castle mirrored Kate, positioning himself towards her. "Gosh... Where do I even begin?"

"Try beginning with what you know; that's what helped me."

Castle looked deep into Kate's eyes and sighed, "Okay, well when I was on the train to Chicago, I got a call from a restricted number, and I didn't think it was anything so I let it go to voicemail. And I think that's when everything went south, and quickly." He cleared his throat before taking another sip of his wine.  
"Do you know who was calling? Do you have the number? I can have Ryan look it up. Do you know what the call was about?" Kate shot rapid fire questions at him. She wanted to help him as fast and as much as possible.

"Shhh. Kate it's okay. I'm okay." Rick could see how worried she was, he didn't see it often but he knew how to read Kate's emotions and pick up on little details so well. He scooted closer and placed his hand on top of hers. "It was a restricted number so I couldn't see it. But when I listened to the voicemail I knew nothing good was going to happen." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. "I saved the voicemail. It's the most recent one." His head sunk as he handed his phone to Kate.

"Do you want me to play it out loud?" Kate asked cautiously. Castle just shook his head. She clicked on the recording and held the phone to her ear.

"Rick" pleaded an older man, who was clearly Rick's father. But he sounded different. Winded, maybe; drugged; possibly. There was a tire screech in the background. Then what sounded to be a car door shutting. "Rick, please pick up. They're after me." Rick's father was panting heavily. "This wasn't supposed to happen this way. I fucked up, Rick. I'm sorry." There was a gun shot. A scream ripped through the speaker. The phone on the other end of the line fell to the floor. There was a pause.  
Someone had picked up the phone, breathing heavily the voice growled into the microphone "You're next."  
Kate looked up and saw tears welling up in Castle's eyes. She brought her hand up to his face and wiped the tears away with her thumbs. "Hey," Castle looked up, "we're gonna find these sons of bitches that did this, okay?" But Castle just shook his head.

"You can't" he argued, "they got away." Tears began to roll down his cheek, but he wiped them away with the back of his hands. "That's why I'm here. I'll probably be dead soon and I can't bring myself to tell Alexis or Mother. I just need a friend and right now, you're my closest one."

Touched, yet slightly frazzled at Castle's claim of nearing death she asked him one of the several questions racing through her mind, "how do you know you'll be dead soon?"

"That's the next part of the story." Castle says in a shaky voice. He paused to look into Kate's eyes.

Kate saw the pain and terror in his eyes. She could only do one thing, right as he was about to begin his story she leaned forward, closed her eyes, and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Kate slowly backed away while looking into Castle's deep blue eyes. She bit her lip and said, "If you're going to die soon, I needed to feel what that was like, at least once."

"Kate," Castle opened his arms and Kate crawled into them. They held each other for what seemed like an eternity. "When I was in Chicago, during my signing session, a man in sunglasses got to the front of the line without a book, only a folded piece of paper. He handed me the paper and whispered 'don't open this until you're on your way home.' He took a few steps threw his head over his shoulder and said 'you're next' just like in the call. Then he walked away. I was terrified. I still haven't opened the paper; will you open it with me?"

Kate nodded against his shoulder, forgetting she was still wrapped in his embrace. She scooted off his lap so he could get the paper out of his bag. Castle noticed by her stature that she was just as scared as he was.


	2. Unwelcome Guests

Castle was heading to grab his bag when someone started banging the door and was shouting in a language foreign to Castle's ears. He quickly grabbed his bag and scurried away from the door.

"Kate, what is he saying? Does it mean anything?"

"Yeah. I means we gotta go, now." Kate grabbed Castle's hand and bag and ushered him into her bedroom, where the fire escape was located. Castle stopped abruptly in the doorway.

"Castle what are you doing? We don't have time for you to fantasize about being in my bedroom. I'm going to grab some clothes and my backup gun. While I'm doing this can you open the window to the fire escape I'll only be a second."

Kate threw a pair of clothes in a bag and grabbed her guns. She locked her bedroom door to stall the brute who was going to break through her front door any second. She and Castle started climbing down the fire escape when she heard a gunshot and her front door getting kicked in.  
"Castle, we're going to have to speed up the pace."

Castle was grimacing with each step but quickened his pace. He jumped off the fire escape and gripped Kate's waist and brought her safely to the ground. "Soooo... Um... I don't have the Ferrari since I just came from the airport. I just have Mother's car. I hope that's okay for our getaway."

"It's perfect as long as I'm driving" Kate teased as they paced toward their getaway car. There was another gunshot, the perp was now in Kate's bedroom.

"C'mon the cars right around the corner" Rick grabbed Kate's wrist almost dragging her behind him as he sprinted away from the apartment. As they rounded the corner a man in dark clothes and sunglasses stepped out from the shadows.

"Where do you think you're going?" the mystery man asked sternly.

"Um... Uh... We..." Castle hesitated. It was evident he knew who the man was. Kate noticed Castle struggling.

"Baby, who's he? We're going to be late for our plane. This is the first time you're meeting my parents, you don't want to make a bad impression" Kate stepped closer to Castle trying to convince the man she and Castle were a couple. To make it more convincing she reached her arm around Castle waist and clung to him as any girl would a handsome man.

"I'm sorry sweetie, your little trip is going to have to wait. I have some unfinished business with this man."

Kate lunged at the man grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back and shoved him against the wall. "Listen to me, you're going to let us go because my parents are very influential people and they don't like being stood up, which is what would happen if we were to miss the plane. Okay? Your little business with my boyfriend is over. Now if you think it isn't, well, there's another thing coming for you."

"Fine, fine. But you and your little boyfriend are going to regret this," the man said to Kate in a low, threatening voice. Kate released the mystery man's arm and shoved him away from her and Castle. As the mystery man walked away, Kate looked back down the alley where the fire escape had dropped them. She saw - who she assumed to be the man who shot is way into the apartment- climbing down the fire escape. He stumbled a little but made up for the lost time by skipping the last ladder of the escape and jumped to the ground.

"Castle, run!" was the only thing she could say. The man started sprinting but luckily for Kate and Castle, he injured his leg when he jumped from the escape. The charging man yelled out in pain with each step. Castle turned around when he heard a snap; it was the man's leg. He many cried in agony as Kate and Castle continued running down the pavement. They pair jumped into the car and Kate pulled out of the garage and sped down the road.

"Castle, who was that guy? And don't tell me you don't know; I'm an interrogator, I know all the tells. And what the hell did you get yourself into?"


	3. The Not So Great Escape

"Okay so whoever is after you found you at my apartment so what are the odds they'll be at your loft waiting for us?" Kate pondered.

"I don't know. I mean they must know where I live, but think about it, Kate, I came straight to your apartment from the airport; they could've EASILY followed me from there. I didn't think they'd be after me this soon, so I didn't switch cabs to throw them off I didn't know there was anyone I needed to throw off. I'm so sorry I got you into this. Now, I'm going to get you out. I promise you, we'll find our way out. We always do," Castle looked at Kate apologetically; he truly was sorry and she needed to know that.

Kate took a hand off the wheel and rested it on his thigh, rubbing it like a mother would to calm a little kid. "I know Castle, but the only way out of this is if we work together as a team hence why I brought TWO guns, one for me and one for you. You helped me cope with my mother's case and I want to do the same for you and your father's case."

"So...um... Back in the alley... Uh... Did you... Um..."

"Castle, quit stammering! I was trying to get us out safely," Kate tried to avoid the awkwardness of the situation. "But if you freaked out that much because I draped my arm around my waist or that I called you 'baby.'" Kate paused for effect. "You'll never survive when I wrap my leg around your waist," she said dropping her voice an octave and turned away from Castle to hide her smile.

"Kate Beckett! We are running for our lives you can't go around saying things like that!" Castle was so flustered his cheeks turned bright red.  
"Wow Castle! That was all you! I didn't mean it like that; get your head out of the gutters! What if I need to get on your back to reach something? It's happened before, with the 'ghost' in the attic case and when we were hand cuffed together."

Now, Castle was so embarrassed, "I'm sorry Kate... It's just I rea-"

Castle turned his head to see Kate smiling and holding in her laugh. "Castle. It's okay." Kate was laughing uncontrollably. She tried to stop and be serious. "Okay. Woo, wow. Sorry we need to be serious now."

Kate looked up into the rear view mirror then made a quick right turn. "Castle, have you noticed that black car? I think we are being trailed."  
Castle stealthily looked over his shoulder to see if he could spot the black SUV. "Um, Kate. It's gaining on us."

Kate's instincts immediately took over and she went into cop mode, weaving through traffic like she's done it a million times before. She jerked the wheel to the left cutting across four lanes of traffic. The SUV ran the red light in order to keep up with Kate, who was now going 90 across the Brooklyn Bridge. "Castle, what does the letter say? I want to know why we are getting trailed."

Castle was turning to get his laptop bag from the backseat. "Kate, down!" A bullet crashed through both windshields as they ducked their heads. "Kate where's your backup. I can't just let them shoot at us."

"Rick! I am not going to let you start shooting on a public road; there are innocent people who could get caught in the crossfire. Besides I'd rather know what's in the letter. Did you grab it yet?"

"I grabbed my bag. Let me get out the paper." Castle reached into his bag. Kate checked the rear view again to gauge where the SUV was. She saw them. They were several feet behind Kate and Castle, but still hot on their.

"Castle, they're a little bit behind us. We'll get off the bridge in a second. Hopefully I can lose those guys in Brooklyn. Brooklyn streets can be pretty confusing if you get a jump on someone."

As they exited the Brooklyn Bridge another black SUV flew out in front of their car, which was speeding down the bridge. Kate locked the breaks and threw her arm in front of Castle's body instinctively. She cut the wheel, but it wasn't enough. The sedan t-boned the SUV. Their bodies crashed into the airbags that deployed on impact.  
A second later Kate and Castle's bodies were flung back into their chairs when the second SUV rear ended them. Any chance of driving their way out had vanished when they got sandwiched. The only escape was on foot.  
Castle, dizzy from the crash, reached his arm over to Kate. "Kate? Kate? Can you hear me? Are you okay? We need to get out of here." Castle reached for her seatbelt and unfastened it. He lifted up her head from the mostly deflated airbag. Kate had a large gash on her forehead and was slowly gaining consciousness.

"Castle..." Kate breathlessly moaned his name. Kate reached for the door but stopped when she was a gun aimed at her head. She was too weak to fight. Castle saw the gunman and looked to his right to find another one aiming at his head.

"Bag 'em!" yelled an unfamiliar voice. Before they knew it they had black canvas bags over their heads. A needle was shoved in the smalls of their backs. Soon, both of their bodies went limp.


	4. Tsar in Charge

Castle strained to get his eyes open but was immediately blinded by the flood light shining down on his face. He tried to move his hand above his eyes to block the light. He couldn't move. He pulled harder and harder, but each time feeling more pain than the last. He wiggled and contorted his hands to get an idea of what was restraining him. He hit his wrists together and heard what sounded like metal on metal. Hand cuffs, he thought. His guess was reaffirmed when he felt a trickle of blood running down his hands. His wrists were agitated by the rubbing of the metal which caused them to swell and the metal to cut deeper into his once supple skin. "Kate!" He whispered her name trying not to draw attention to himself. No reply. He said her name louder and louder no longer caring if anyone else heard. He was only met with the echo of his voice in what seemed to be a vast, empty room.

"Can anyone hear me? What's going on? Where's Kate?" He hopelessly called out hoping someone, anyone, would respond. He heard a door close somewhere in the distance, but he wasn't sure where. Castle was still weary from whatever he had been injected with back in the car. He didn't even know whether he was on the ground, in a chair, or lying down; all he knew was that his hands were bound with a metal object and he wasn't with Kate. Right now, he didn't care about anything but Kate.

"Ah, Mr. Castle, glad to see you are awake." Castle didn't quite recognize the voice but could hear the Eastern European accent. Castle heard footsteps coming toward him. He heard another set, lighter and much more elegant than those of the man. The man yelled something, in a language Castle recognized as Russian. The lights dimmed immediately. When he saw then man, Castle knew exactly who he was: Nikolai Rustić, one of his dad's former CIA acquaintances. Castle's face hardened upon recognition.

"Ah, Mr. Castle you recognize me. I thought you would after your dad told you all about me. How is your father? Oh right I heard he was shot dead? Does that sound right? My apologies. Such a loss. He was a good man until you know," he gestured to his temple with his first two fingers and mimicked a gunshot, "I want to find out who did this to my dear friend."

"What are you talking about? You did it you son of a bitch!" Castle tried to stand up. His ankles were restrained as well, but with rope or cloth material. He felt a burn but no cutting which indicated it wasn't any sort metal.

"Why Mr. Castle, why in the world do you think I killed your father?" Nikolai stalked toward Castle and threw out a switch knife. He placed the knife flat under Castle's chin and bent over so his face was right in front of Castle's. "Listen, if it was I whom killed your father, you wouldn't know he was dead until you were sitting with him in hell not long after he got there."

"Okay so if it wasn't you why am I here? And where's Kate? If you hurt her I'm gonna ri-"

"Relax Mr. Castle, your girlfriend is right over there," Nikolai interrupted trying to keep Castle calm.

"She's not my girlfriend. She's my partner and someone I trust," Castle muttered.

Nikolai pulled the knife away from Castle's neck and said something in Russian. A tall, bulky man brought Kate over. Her hands were handcuffed in front of her body and she had a gag in her mouth to prevent her from talking. Or screaming, Castle thought when he saw how disheveled she looked. The man let Kate go; she ran to Castle and threw her hands over his head and held him in a hug.

"Kate, I'm so glad you're okay." Castle looked to Nikolai, "okay so you gave me what I wanted now I'm guessing you want something from me now."  
"You're smarter than you look, Mr. Castle"

"Should I take that as a compliment or insult? Never mind, just tell me what you want."

"I want your help. We," Nikolai said gesturing around the room, signaling that there were more men than just the one who brought Beckett, "are looking for your father's killer. I'm assuming, since he is your father, you a: want to know who killed him and b: might have information about his death."

"Why are you so sure I want to help my father? I didn't even know him. He left my mother to raise me by herself. The only time he talked to me was when he was in trouble."

"There's my second point; he was in trouble did he reach out to you?"

Castle looked at Kate, who still had not let go of him. Kate gave him a slight nod of approval. "Yeah. He called me right before he was killed. I have the voicemail on my phone but seeing as it was in the car when you kidnapped us I don't have it." He looked to Kate again to see if he should share the letter. She shook her head and tried to play it off as nothing. Castle did the same, "the call actually recorded the murder. If you let us go back to the car maybe I can find it."

"Nice try, Mr. Castle, but I'm in charge here. We are doing this my way." The angrier Nikolai got the stronger his accent got. Castle could barely understand what he was saying. A man came over with a bag full of stuff, dropped it on the ground in front of Castle's feet. "Here," he said firmly then walked away.

"These are things we recovered from the wreck. Look for your phone and give it to us," Nikolai demanded.

"Okay, yeah that's great, but we are both handcuffed. How the hell am I supposed to get my phone out if I'm stuck in a chair with my hands bound behind me?" Castle challenged Nikolai.

"Fine, uncuff them." A man came behind and released Kate and Castle from their restraints. Castle, before dealing with the dry blood and open cuts on his wrists, immediately untied Kate's gag. Castle and Kate both got on their knees and searched vigorously through the bag. "Is there another bag? I don't see any of my or Castle's stuff," Kate asked hesitantly.

"I don't recognize any of this stuff either. I can't help you if I don't have my phone," Castle cautiously chimed in

"Shit, fine if I don't have another bag, we'll go back to find your phone," said Nikolai who was anxious and frustrated now. He turned to the man who brought the bag "Dammit! I told you to grab everything! They don't even recognize the shit in the bag? Where is this from? This isn't the right damn bag! Find it!" Nikolai cocked and pointed his gun at the man.

"Just a quick question," Castle said while cowering behind Kate.

"What?!" Nikolai yelled whipping the gun in his direction

"Why are you so interested in my father's murder? Do you benefit form finding the killer? Does it have something to do with a CIA mission he was running? Okay that's more than one question, but I'm just curious."

"Why am I so interested in your father's murder, Mr. Castle? Well it's a long story but I feel we have the time since that idiot of a guard can't seem to do anything right. I doubt he'll find the right bag anytime soon. Where shall I begin?" Nikolai pulled over a chair, sat down, and took a deep breath.


	5. Story Time

Nikolai looked up at Castle and Kate who were staring at him intently. "Okay, this all began about 40 years ago. Your father was about 25 at the time. He had just begun working for the Feds. He worked with foreign affairs, even though the Feds work domestic issues. Which was why his job was so dangerous; if he were to get caught by a foreign agency snooping where the CIA didn't have jurisdiction, he could get killed.

He was great at what he did. He rose through the ranks quickly; within a matter of years he was working the most classified cases. Your father was deployed to the Russian satellite countries because the U.S. was in the midst of the Communist Red Scare. The CIA needed to get as much information as possible on any future attacks. He gave enough intel to avoid 3 major attacks from the soviets because of this, he was soon stationed in Moscow. See now, I had been working with a private rebel corporation in Siberia at the time. I tracked him down, with the help of my CIA, friends to get his help on a new mission that my associates and I were planning that could've taken down the Tsar."

"Could've? So it didn't work?" Castle interjected when Nikolai paused to drink from the water bottle one of his henchmen had brought him.

Nikolai sighed, "Mr. Castle, please, do not interrupt me. Now as I was saying my corporation needed to get in contact with your father so he could help us. I found him in Moscow and we flew to my corporation's headquarters. He came willingly only because the CIA helped us find him. He was too distracted with his original mission, which was far more risky than the plan we proposed. He was supposed meet with the tsar at the government headquarters in Moscow as a newspaper reporter from Germany. The German Black Market was one of the top suppliers of Russian weaponry so you father was supposed to ask about the German black market and the weapons being dealt with. The only problem was your father wasn't a strong German or Russian speaker so any small mistake could be disastrous. The plan we proposed was he go meet with the tsar's diplomat for foreign affairs as a communist arms dealer from America who wanted to help with the next attack on the American Homefront. By meeting with the diplomat there is less security around in case something goes awry and since the diplomat is the middleman between the tsar and the military he was given all of the details for the direct orders to the military. It was less risky and I could keep an eye on him in case he managed to blow his cover.

"He stayed with me for several weeks while we worked out the logistics of the plan. We became very close. He was like my brother.

"After several months of planning and after he finally agreed to meet with the ambassador we ran the mission. Everything was going smoothly until he took off his sunglasses after walking into the house from his tour of the mansion. The glasses got caught on his ear piece and popped it out of his ear. The security guards forced him out of the house, but no one got hurt. The CIA found out he had gone rogue and about the incident and they pulled him from Europe. We stayed in touch; he would call every now and again but it was very infrequent. So when he called me more regularly these past two months I knew something was going to happen. He was talking about being followed by Russian spies and had been contacted by the CIA about his missions to Moscow and the satellite countries. I guess the Russians found out that he was CIA and not a Siberian rebel. The Russians still don't like the Americans so it makes sense they would go after him even after all of these years."

"Okay so I guess the mission didn't go well but why kill him now? There's got to be more to the story. I mean why wait over 4 decades to get revenge? Was there anything said at his meeting that would be relevant to American Intelligence now?" Kate inquired.

"Not that I know of. There was one point where the earpiece was out of range, but other than that it was mostly small talk. Mr. Castle did he say anything to you about- wait the ambassador did mention some sort new war technology more dangerous than the atomic bomb that you Americans created. Yes... He said that the Russian scientists had just started research on this thing. The ambassador said that it might be half a century before it works because it is so complex. Well it's been almost half a century so your father, Mr. Castle, may have told the CIA about this weapon and the weapon may actually be almost finished. I bet the Russians killed your father because he disclosed the information about the weapon. Do you think the Russians killed my dear friend because America figured out the weapon before the Russians finished it?" Nikolai got up and walked around. He rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair just as Castle did at Kate's apartment. As Nikolai paces around the vast room, Kate looked at Castle; he looked so confused and scared.

"Kate, if it was the Russians who killed my father, I'm screwed... They're so dangerous and if they have a target in your back you might as well be dead." Castle turned to Kate with a forlorn look. Kate looked up at him and took his hand in hers.

"We'll find these bastards before they find us. I promise we will get you out of this." Kate leaned up and kissed his cheek. But stayed hovering right over his ear. "Do you still have the letter?" She whispered into his ear softly so Nikolai and his henchmen couldn't hear. Castle felt his breast pocket and turned to kiss Kate's cheek, "yeah it's still here. I want to know what it says but I don't want to show Nikolai."

Kate moved her chair closer to Castle's and cuddled up next to him so they could talk without drawing suspicion. "Me too. I wish there was some way we could be alone long enough to read it."

Nikolai shouted form across the room, "let's go! We need to get out of here now. The Russians are coming. Mr. Castle and your girlfriend go with Vladimir I'll go with Kristof. Follow us closely.

Kate looked up at Castle and smiled, "I guess wishes do really come true."


	6. The Letter

Kate and Castle jumped into the back of a black SUV, just like the one they were hit with on the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a divider that separated the back seats from the front ones. Kate and Castle decided it would be a good time to open the letter Castle had gotten from his dad, since they didn't know when they would get another private opportunity like this one. Castle reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the small piece of paper. "You ready," he asked Kate.

"Yeah," Kate bit her lip nervously and smiled at Castle.

Castle gently pulled off the tape that was holding the letter closed and began skimming the letter. "This doesn't make sense. The guy who gave it to me said 'you're next' I don't understand."

"Hey, um, Castle, want to read it out loud?" Kate asked.

"Oh yeah that'd be a good idea, huh?" Castle took a deep breath.

"Dear Rick,  
I know I left you and your mother and we've never really had a relationship, but I've been keeping a close eye on you. I wish I could've had a bigger part in your life but my job doesn't allow for frequent contact, actually any contact at all. But I'm writing this letter so hopefully you can have some closure about the things I've put you and your mother through. I don't know how much time I have even to write this letter, but if you're reading this I'm most likely dead and have been for quite some time. As you've probably figured out, I work for the CIA, but what you may not know is that I went rogue on a mission in Russia and learned extremely sensitive material. I was found and pulled from field duty after a small incident in Moscow. Once I was pulled and back on US soil, I reported my findings to my higher ups in the CIA. As soon as I shared the information with my boss, I put myself as well as you and your family in jeopardy. The Russians are dangerous people and they're after me.

"I recently discovered that the plan the Russians had, regarding the sensitive information, is going to be put into action in the upcoming years. This is a warning. The Russians want to attack highly populated areas such as New York City and Los Angeles. If you're wondering what sort of attack the Russians are planning, the Russians are building and testing a Weapon of Mass Destruction. This WMD is supposed to be more dangerous than the atomic bombs that we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm not sure what the specifics of the WMD are but it's some sort of bioterrorism threat mixed with devastating explosives that can be deployed from drones. The Russians are after me for disclosing this information to the CIA. I need your help stopping them. I've done all I can now it's your turn to try and save those you love. I don't have too much more information to give you, without securing your death, other than: watch your back. As soon as you mess up you'll be dead.

"Be careful Rick. This WMD was once only an idea; now it is becoming a reality. The Russians are working with a chemist named Peter Khrushchev. He is responsible for many of the Russians new chemical advancements and I have no doubt he is capable of creating a WMD. You need to connect with my old friends at the CIA. You may also be contacted by one of my old accomplices Nikolai Rustić; he is a good man but can be dangerous if crossed. He worked with me on this case and may be able to give you more information than I.

"You cannot solve this on your own; it's far too dangerous. Do not get your mother or Alexis involved. Do not tell them anything or their death will be certain. So far everyone who has been closely involved with this, from the U.S. side, is dead and I don't want that for you. You're the only one I trust who can figure this out. Don't be as stupid as I was. Below are some instructions that can get you on the right track. I love you kiddo, always." Castle sighed in frustration. "Could he be any vaguer? I get that he wants to keep me safe but if I don't know what I'm up against how can I stop it?"  
Kate reached over to put her hand reassuringly on his knee. "Okay, breathe Castle. He gave us a lot more information than we had before. We have the name of the person who is making the WMD and we know that it will be deployed in the upcoming months as well as how it will be deployed. And I guess your dad wasn't rogue after, he just went AWOL. He came back to the CIA to share his knowledge of the terrorist attack."  
"See but that's what I don't get. Why are the Russians going to attack the US? The Cold War is over. What's their motive for killing my father if they weren't going to deploy it? Unless..."

"The Russians weren't going to attack us with us but another powerful country"

"Yes, they want to build an empire and become more powerful than us."

"So... Once your father told the CIA it ruined Russia's chance of amassing another empire like they did after WWII."

"Okay, so why did my father think the Russians are going to attack the US?"

"That's what we need to find out. Don't worry, Castle, we'll catch the son of a bitch who killed your father. He said he left you instructions? What do they say?" Kate asked.

"Um... Let me see," Castle scanned the page to find where he had left off, "Instructions:

1) Talk to CIA about any new information. Mention my name and ask for Calvin McWatt.

2) Go to my apartment in Tribeca. In the back of my sock drawer there is a sock without a match. I call it my 'odd sock' there will be a USB Memory stick. The stick contains all of the information I gathered from my investigations. This should help you narrow down what you're working with.

3) Contact Peter Khrushchev. Once again mention my name but not your relation to me. He hates me. Tell him you're interested in helping plan my demise using some sort of WMD

4) Try to start a joint investigation with Agent McWatt. I guarantee you will have information that he needs and vice versa.

5) With the CIA's help, narrow down a time frame and location for the attack

6) Have your family leave the area if the target is NYC.

7) Focus on stopping the attack

Some advice: don't do anything stupid, don't travel to Russia let them come to you on your home turf, don't piss off the Russians, and most importantly, don't die."

Kate chuckled a little at some of the advice Castle received but covered her mouth quickly. "Sorry, Castle, just some of those pieces if advice are kind of obvious like 'don't piss off the Russians.' That one is kind of funny. But seriously, though that's a good start! We should talk to Nikolai about the WMD especially since your dad said he would be helpful."

"Yeah, and once I get my phone back I can call my contact in the CIA and see if we can get a meeting with Agent McWatt."

The car took a sharp turn and Kate flew on to Castle's lap. They both started laughing until they slammed into the panel divider separating them from the driver. They crawled back onto the seat and knocked on the divider to ask the driver what happened.

"Is everyone okay back there?" The driver called out as the divider slowly rolled down.

"Yeah," Castle and Kate answered simultaneously.

"What the hell happened? Is everything okay?" Castle asked curiously. The back seat windows were blacked out so nobody could see out or in.

"I'm fine but Nikolai called me and said we had someone tailing us and I had to follow him closely. We've been weaving through traffic for a while now, but he randomly made a quick turn, which I replicated. I had to slam on my brakes to not hit Nikolai's car. His car stopped in front of a large fence which is where we are now. His driver is getting out now to open the gate." The driver seemed just as confused as Castle and Kate.

All of a sudden, there was a loud bang. And someone came pounding on the passenger's side door. The driver unlocked the car and a frantic Nikolai Rustić jumped in the car screaming "Go! Go! Go! They're here!"

The driver threw the car in reverse and zoomed back onto the road.


	7. On a Road to Nowhere

The diver peeled out onto the road. He weaved through cars almost as if it was natural. _How many times has he done this_? Castle thought.

"He what if my dad was wrong? What if this is just a setup and Nikolai's out to get us?" Castle whispered into Kate's ear

"What makes you think that?" Kate said in a hushed voice. She scooted close to Castle so they could keep their conversation undetected by Nikolai and the driver.

"I mean like why are they so calm right now? The driver seemed puzzled when we were in the driveway but maybe it was just a ploy. They could be trying to get information from us. You know, to see what we know and how close we are to stopping the attack. Maybe they have a vendetta against my family for what my father did to Nikolai," Castle theorized.

"Okay. If that's true what did your dad do because Nikolai said he and your father were really close?" Kate questioned Castle, a skill she had acquired over the few years the two have been working together.

"Maybe once my father blew the mission, the CIA arrested Nikolai or turned them into the Serbian government for aiding a rouge CIA agent." Castle was quite good at stringing together pure conjecture into some feasible situation.

Kate and Castle turned their heads forward when they heard a humming noise come from the front seats, it was the divider going up. Now Kate and Castle had no view of where they were going.

"See Kate, it totally makes sense. They pulled the diversion in the other bunker thingy to get us out and to transport us to where Peter Khrushchev is to get us to talk," Castle gulped, "or kill us."

Kate scooted over to comfort Castle. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and squeezed him in a side hug. Then she swung her legs on top of his and nestled herself into his side. "It's going to be okay Castle. The boys are probably looking for us by now. And I'm going to bet it won't take too long."  
Castle looked up with a quizzical expression. Kate smirked and reached into her bra. She leaned in close, raising her lips to Castle's ear. "I kind of lied back there. I found my phone in the bag. But none of our other possessions. I texted Ryan to put a trace on my phone and that they needed back up. I said I couldn't talk and the CIA should get involved." She pulled the iPhone from her bra and smiled. Castle was frozen, partly from Kate's genius, but mostly he was trying to recover from the goosebumps caused by her warm breath on his neck and also the sight of bed reaching into her bra to grab the phone.  
 _  
God, I love her_ , he thought, _but I have to control myself. Wait until we survive this. Wait what if we don't survive? I will never get to tell her how I feel._

"Castle?" Kate asked, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Castle wrapped his arm around her and pulled Kate tighter into his side kind of wincing in pain. "Nothing. I'm fine"

"No you're not. You're in pain. I can see it. Both physically and emotionally. Let's deal with the physical pain first and," Kate tilted her head up and pressed a kiss on his cheek, "we can deal with the emotional pain because I'm pretty sure I know what it's from."

"I bruised my ribs maybe broke one in Chicago. Who knew Chi Town could be so dangerous?"

Kate scooted away a little to alleviate some of the pressure from his ribs. "Oh, Castle, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pressed myself against your ribs. I didn't know."

"It's okay Kate. I want you here." Castle hooked his arm around her again and settled her in a position that was comfortable for both of them.

"How did it happen?" Kate asked with some concern in her voice.

"It began like this..."


	8. The Town of the Bulls

"Okay so this is what happened. When I got there, it was really late so I went to my hotel to get a drink or two and go to sleep. And obviously Gina being the devil she is booked me at a hotel without a bar so I went to the one across the street for a whiskey. And oh my lord that bar is not a bar I would be visiting again any time soon and definitely not a bar I would've visited on any normal occasion. It was unclean, smelled of body odor and throw up with some tobacco smoke, loud, and I have a feeling many of the customers are alcoholics. And I'm assuming the bad was extra crowded because there was a Chicago Bulls game on TV.

"So anyway, I was sitting at the end of the bar drinking my whiskey minding my own business. I was on my phone looking at my schedule for the weekend, I wanted to visit one of my old buddies from high school and I was trying to squeeze him into my schedule. About half way through the third quarter Derek Rose got fouled and went down hard, the bar went crazy people were yelling and tempers flared. Next thing I know a bottle flew over my head and hit the wall behind me. I stood up to see where the bottle came from. I stared toward that direction and another bottle came flying toward me. I yelled to get the guys attention-not the best decision- and he came charging toward me. I felt someone jab my stomach and a hand on either shoulder I was shoved back into a wall. A tall muscular man stalked toward me. He elbowed my ribs and put his face really close to mine. His breath reeked of vodka. He whispered "Behave" then he shoved a burlap sack over my head and I was being held up under my armpits and my heels were sliding across the floor.

"I heard some doors open behind me. Then I was thrown into a chair. I had no clue what was going on. The guy took off the sack and asked where my dad was. I told him I didn't know. He took a wooden bat and threatened to hit me in the ribs again if I didn't tell him where my dad was. I honestly had no idea where my dad could've been. I told him again that I didn't know. He wound up and stopped. He said and I quote "what am I doing? I don't do the dirty work" he turned to one of the men behind him. One of the guys took the bat and whacked me in the ribs repeatedly. I was doubled over gasping for a breath. I told him I hadn't had any contact with my dad in a long time and that I never really talked to him my entire life. He asked me what I knew about my father and I told him everything I knew, apparently they knew more than I did the head of the little clan called off the assault. I asked why they wanted to know about my father and the man said that I'll be dead before I found out.

"I didn't think it was anything until now. And now that I think about it, the man had an Eastern European or Russian accent. Do you think it could be related to the WMD?" Castle asked Kate after finished his story and put his hand on hers which lay lightly on his knee.

"Quite possibly. I'm so sorry this happened. Let me take a look at it to see how bad it is. You might need medical attention." Kate seemed worried but she had this maternal quality to her, one that Castle wanted to see more of. Castle unbuckled his seat belt and lifted his arm over his head, wincing as it got higher and higher. Kate reached over and pulled the shirt up. She stared. His ribs were dark purple with several red abrasions along the surface. The bruising went from his underarm to the waistband of his pants. He was quite swollen and it was obvious, to Kate, he indeed had broken a rib or two. Castle looked at her, her mouth was open in either disgust or intrigue.

"Hey Kate, can I just take off my shirt so you can look at it? It really hurts to keep my arm raised."  
Kate nodded and helped him rid his shirt. Now Kate was really staring, but not at his toned chest and shoulders; Kate had always known Castle was muscular, but his shirts hid the contours of his muscles. She noticed Castle was staring at her and quickly snapped her attention back to the injuries. She reached out to touch but stopped.

"Castle, this is really bad. Why didn't you go see anyone about this? What if you're bleeding eternally?" Kate was trying to suppress her worry, but she could tell she wasn't doing a very good job.

"Well I've had broken ribs before, I played tackle football," he said with a smirk, "and I took a really hard hit to the sternum and fell on my side. When I went to the hospital all they said was to wrap it, ice and stop playing football for two months. So I figured I didn't need to waste a trip to the ER to hear the same information. Why? Are you worried or something? Is it that bad? You're never this worried when I do stupid things."

"Well it is pretty bad and you have some abrasions. The bruising is really deep and the bruise runs the entirety of your torso. Are you having trouble breathing? Since you probably broke a rib I want to make sure it didn't puncture a lung."

"I mean not really, it's just really tight and it hurts to expand my chest but I don't feel short of breath. Hey, can you help me put my shirt back on?"

All Kate did was smirk and climb over Castle so she could sit on his not injured side. She proceeded to snuggle herself into him. She looked up and smiled, "Nope." She rested her head on his chest and closes her eyes.

Castle chuckled and put his arm around her, pulling her closer to him. He leaned back, took a slow breath and closed his eyes as well.


	9. All About That Bass-ment

When Castle woke up from his nap in the car he was on a bed, he didn't think anything of it. He felt a warmth along his side and a steady wave of warm air brushing across his arm... Almost as if someone was breathing on his arm. Someone was breathing in him, it was Kate! She was sleeping soundly with an arm around his waist and her head on his chest. Castle had noticed his shirt was back on but he couldn't remember putting it on. After ignoring his slight confusion he tried to determine where he was. Without waking up Kate, he sat up to look around the room. The room was dark and smelled of mold and dust. There was a small window at the top of an exterior wall, but it was too high to see out of from the floor. Castle realized that the only way to see out of it was for Kate to get on Castle's back. He only saw one problem; Castle lifted up his hand and it was handcuffed to Kate's.

"Kate...Kate... Hey, you've got to wake up hon," Castle whispered into her ear. He wiped the hair out of her eyes and smiled as she weakly opened her eyes.

"Hey, Castle," she said in her tired voice. She smiled sheepishly when she saw him. "Castle, why do you look so worried?"

"Kate, we're in a basement. And we're cuffed together," he said as he raised his cuffed hand pulling hers off the bed. "I started looking around while you were sleeping and the only way out, I've noticed was that window over on that wall, but it's too high for me to see out. I think you'll have to get on my shoulders to see out. Do you have your phone? You had it in your bra before and I hope they didn't reach in there, while you were sleeping, to get it out."

"Um," Kate pressed her hand to her chest to feel for her phone, "yeah it's right here. And how did we get in here anyway? How long were we sleeping?"

"I don't know how we got here, but someone definitely moved us because my shirt is back on and I didn't do it and I'm pretty sure you didn't either. Does your phone have any service? We can contact Ryan and Espo."

"Can we canvas the room real quick? I just want to get a sense of where we are being held captive," Kate said.

So Castle and Kate started to do a quick sweep of the room. "Castle, I can't see very well. I'm going to turn on the flashlight on my phone. I just hope we won't be seen." Kate turned on the flashlight. "Woah... This is not what I expected"

Half of the room was completely empty, the side they had been currently walking around; the other half was full of appliances: a refrigerator, stove, microwave, sink, toilet. It also had a locked box in the corner.

"We are literally being held captive. I have a feeling they want to keep it that way for while. We should call Ryan and Espo because I don't want to stay here as long as they planned. I didn't even wear my silk boxers! Man this sucks!"

"Quit whining Castle," Kate held her phone up in the air. "No service. Dammit. What if I try by the window?" They walked to the window and once again Kate held up her phone, this time getting on her toes. "Ah nothing. Well this sucks."

"Kate what if you climbed on my shoulders. You're a good 4 feet away from that window if we get closer it might work."

Castle knelt down and Kate swung her legs onto his shoulders. He stood up once she was situated, which took a few minutes, and wobbled closer to the window. Castle and Kate were extremely unbalanced from the handcuffs pulling them to one side. "Castle! I got something! Let me text Ryan and Espo."

There was a knock at the door. Kate while rushing to put her phone back in her bra she became off balanced and Castle and Kate toppled over and landed with an

"Umph!" Castle fell on his back and Kate fell on top of him, their faces mere centimeters away. They could feel the rise and fall of each other's chest as they tried to catch their breath. Kate smiles shyly and looked to Castle. She instantly got lost in those deep blue eyes of his. And he was taken back by thee lovely emerald color harbored in her eyes. Nothing could ruin that moment... Until the door flung open.


	10. Cold War

"Ahh what do we have here?" The accent was familiar but the voice was foreign to Kate and Castle's ears. Kate looked up and quickly got up realizing she was still laying on Castle's chest.

"Um we were just exploring. You know getting to know the space where we will be staying," Castle responded quickly.

"Yeah. Seeing as there's a refrigerator I assume we will be here for quite some time. But just one question, what are we going to put in the fridge? Are you going to bring us food to cook or is it for our leftovers?" Kate questioned in a castle-esque manner.

"Quit being a smart ass Detective Beckett. But yes we are going to detain you until we know you're not a threat to our mission," the mystery man angrily retorted.

"My turn to be the smart ass," Castle whispered into Kate's ear. Kate tried to suppress the smile that was coming. Castle turned to the man and asked, "How can we be a threat to your mission if we don't even know what your mission is?"

"Shut up! You know exactly what my mission is! I know that because your dad wouldn't shut his mouth. When he told the CIA about my government bomb lab under the nuclear reactor in Siberia I lost my lab and was forced to move. And you know what?! I would rather be getting radiation poisoning than freezing my ass off in the middle of nowhere. I have to hunt my own fucking food! There's no heating, no electricity and no damn indoor plumbing. I had the perfect equation for the biggest and most effective hydrogen bombs the world has even known," the man started shouting. He grew breathless and had to pause. Kate and Castle smirked at each other, both with the same idea: ask more stupid questions. They knew the angrier he got the more he would reveal.

"Ohhhh... So YOU'RE Peter Khrushchev." Castle saints as if he had just figured it out.

"Yes I'm Peter Khrushchev, who the hell else could I be?"

Castle knew it was a rhetorical questioned but answered any way, "I don't know. Dr. Jekyll? No. Maybe you could've been Einstein. Wait no, just kidding, and you didn't come up with the theory of relativity." Castle was beaming and Kate was convincingly hiding her amusement.  
Khrushchev was getting irritated. "Stop it! I bet your father gave you a very detailed description of me along with other background information. Like how I'm too god damn old to be planning a bio terror attack and way too old to be building the bomb. Well that's what protégés are for right? Well I've got a bright one and he brought you here today. Yep that's right Nikolai Rustić is my protégé who knew my son could be so smart."

Son? It was a set up. Castle looked as if he had just seen a ghost. Kate reached out to hold his hand in support. Castle looked down and whispered into Kate's ear, "How could someone my father trust so much be trying to destroy him?" This thought brought a shiver down both of their spines.


	11. The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Castle was dumbstruck. He just didn't understand how Nikolai, someone Castle's father was so close to and trusted so much, could betray Castle's father. Did Nikolai just pretend to be close so he could get information from Castle's father then turn him into the CIA?  
Peter Khrushchev's temper increased. His face was a bright red and I looked like he was about to explode. Castle hid his emotions and tried to pull more information.

"Yeah actually now that you mention it," Castle paused for effect, "my dad, I think, did mention you. But he didn't mention that Nikolai was your son. He just said that Nikolai was helping him take you down. I'm guarding that as a ruse now. Nikolai may not have been entirely honest with my father about his motives, but damn did he give a lot of information."

Peter's face shifted from anger to intrigue. "What? What did Nikolai say about my mission? I bet it was all wrong. He didn't even know that much. What did he tell you?"

Kate shifted her weight to lean on Castle. She didn't want to ruin anything Castle was doing, but she wanted to show her support. She draped her arm around his hips and molded herself to his side. Castle looked down at her and smiled. He put his arm around her shoulder. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, "When did we get uncuffed?"

Kate stretched on her toes and kissed his ear while saying, "While Peter went on his rant. I had a bobby pin and went to work." She looked up at him and smiled.

"What are you two talking about?" Peter was getting suspicious.

It was Kate's turn to have some fun. "Oh you know, how we could, um," Kate smiled salaciously, "have a little fun. Just the two of us. We are going to be alone for quite some time and the bed is super comfortable. Plus we are already handcuffed so that makes things so much hotter."

"You two are something all right. Just keep it down because my guards don't want to hear what you two are doing in there. I don't want to have to give them ear plugs for when they're stationed outside of your door," Peter said in a partly amused but disgusted tone.

Kate took her finger and ran it over Castle's chest and leaned up to his ear, "so there won't be any guards in the room. That's good news." She bit her lower lip to make Peter and his henchmen thing she said something other than the information she just got from Peter.

"You will get 3 meals and toiletries. We like to keep our...guests comfortable."

"And when will our meals be served? I don't want to be interrupted while in the middle of something." Castle played along with the whole "couple" act.

"8:30 am, noon, and 6:30 pm on the nose. My cook is always punctual with his meals."

One of Peter's henchmen tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. His emotion changed instantly. He began to smirk and the news definitely caught his attention. He turned and walked toward the door with his henchmen. He pointed to two of the men and commanded them to guard the door. He was just about the reach for the knob.

"Wait!" Kate shouted from across the room.

"What?" Peter seemed quite impatient.

"Can we get a radio or something? We need something to entertain is when we're tired. Maybe a TV or a clock radio or something?" Kate pleaded.

"Fine. I'll find something. Goodbye." Peter walked out the door and slammed it shut.

Kate looked at Castle and smiled from ear to ear.

"Well you look happy, giddy even. What's up with you?" Castle asked jokingly. "Did you really get that much enjoyment from pretending to be my girlfriend?"

Kate looked up and down his body and chuckled, "obviously not as much as you enjoyed it." Castle's face turned bright red from embarrassment and covered his excitement.

"No, that's not it. Nice try though. It's the radio. If he brings me one I can rig it so it's a 2 way receiver with my phone. And the times for meals gives me a good window of when I can communicate without fear of interruption." Kate slipped her hand out of the hand cuffs. "Oh come on Castle, it won't be that bad. Come lay down. You look tired. I know I could use a nap right about now."

Castle walked over to the bed a rested his head on the pillow. Kate, feeling cold, took her place beside him, a little closer than she meant, but his body heat felt nice on her back and she quickly warmed up and dozed off.


	12. KB Phone Home

Kate woke up to a hand around her waist and the fall and rise of Castle's chest on her back. She wasn't sure what time it was but when she looked toward the window the sun was either just coming up or just going down. She figured Ryan and Esposito had probably started looking for her and Castle. She rolled over and put a light kiss on his cheek to wake him up.

"Hey," he said as he smiled, keeping his eyes closed.

"I'm going over to the window to see if I can get any service. Will you come with me? I know that we aren't hand cuffed any more but if the guards come in we can't have them know we are free," Kate said as she stood up. She walked over Castle's tired body.

"Just a few more minutes."

Kate bent over and pinched his ass. "Now."

"Ouch what was that for?" Castle asked. He brought his hand to his pinch mark and rubbed lightly to ease the pain.

"Well one, they think we are a couple so we have to keep up that appearance and two because I need to make sure Ryan and Espo know where to look so I need to get them our location now."

"Fine." Castle rolled over and say up, "that bed is actually quite comfortable. I slept pretty well. You?"

"Yeah, I too, actually. I was pretty cold for a while. I guess I ended up using your arm as a blanket because when I woke up, it was around my waist." Kate smiled and joked at Castle.

"Oops. Sorry." Castle's face was bright red.

"It's fine Castle. Now c'mon we need to get to the window."

Kate and Castle walked over to the window and like they did before, Kate climbed on Castle's shoulders to try and get better service.

"I got service. It's 6:30 in the morning. We have a few hours before breakfast is served. I'm going to call Ryan." Kate dialed and waited for a pick up.

"Ryan," he answered warily.

"Hey it's Beckett, can you do a trace on my phone. Castle and I were drugged and kidnapped by a chemist named Peter Khrushchev. Don't ask the less you know the better. I have no idea where the hell we are but we have a fridge and a toilet in the basement where we are being held and so our captivity seems to be not so temporary. I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Gotcha. Yeah give me a sec. I'm at home so I need to pull up my computer."

"Hurry up Ryan! I can't hold her up forever," Castle yelled into the phone as encouragement.

"Beckett what was that?" Ryan asked.

"Oh nothing. Castle is just complaining because the only way we have service is if I'm on his shoulders by the window," Beckett answered with a chuckle.

"Hold on. Beckett, put me on speaker."

Kate pushed the speaker button on her phone, "okay."

"Hey, Castle, just for you I'm going to take my time tracking Beckett's phone. And it can't be that bad, she doesn't even weigh that much. Quit complaining. It could be Espo on your back, that was rough," Ryan laughed into the phone. "Beckett, I got your location but it'll take me a while to get there, but I'll bring back up. I'll be there as soon as I can though."

"Wait, Ryan why will it take you so long?" Kate asked with a seriously confused tone.

"Um Beckett, you're in Maryland."

"Holy hell, how did we get here? I didn't think we were out for that long." Kate was now really confused. "Okay. Thanks Ryan. Hope to see you soon."

"Okay, you too. Hang in there." The line went dead.

"Well, Beckett, we're in Maryland. I don't know how we got here but I'd like to get out of here."

"Me too. The last time I was here was for an Orioles' game. They were playing the Mets." Kate smiled as she opened up a little more of her past to Castle.

"Hmmm... When was the last time I was here?" Castle pondered for a few seconds. "Oh! It was for a book signing. A Heat book signing. It was on my tour after I went with Gina to the Hamp..." Castle stopped his sentence because he knew how much it hurt Beckett to talk A) about his exes and B) about the summer when she dumped Demming only to be rejected by Castle. "Sorry." He looked back down at the ground.

"Castle, it's fine I'm over it. Can I get down now?" Kate asked.

"Oh yeah sure. How is this going to work though? Last time we fell over and that really hurt my ribs so let's not do that again."

"Oh. Shit. I totally forgot about your ribs are they okay? Here what if lift myself onto the ledge with my elbows, you come out from under me, then you help lower me down from the ledge?" Kate suggested.

"Yeah that'll work."

"Ready? One. Two. Three." Kate grunted out as she lifted herself from Castle's shoulders. Castle quickly ducked and got his back to the wall. He gripped Kate's hips which seemed so small in his hands. He lowered her off the ledge, her body sliding down mere millimeters away from his own. When she was finally on the ground she looked up. Biting her lip, she smiled. "Thanks," she giggled. God, did that laugh kill him and even more so the way she bit her lip. He smiled.

"Always," he whispered. _What was this woman doing to me_ he thought. He lost his next thought the moment he looked into her eyes. Some inexplicable green that was heightened by the slight amount of light sprinkling across the room. She was immediately lost in his eyes as well. She bit her lip. Next thing she knew, her eyes swiftly moved without her permission down to Castle's lips then back up to his eyes. Bad move. She couldn't handle this tension any more.


	13. Much Needed Release

She looked into Castle's eyes so longingly. She was tired from the events of the past few days from Castle unexpectedly returning from his book signing and showing up at her front door to secretly looking for his father's murderer to getting kidnapped by a Russian chemist who is planning to bomb the city. Castle could feel her breath steadily increase. The tension could be cut with a knife. She looked down to his lips then her eyes shot back up to meet his gaze again. She bit her lip. Stuck in a trance it felt like they were looking into each other's eyes for an eternity.

Kate's phone vibrated in her hand. Dammit Ryan she thought as she looked down at her phone. The spell was instantly broken. "Um," she said with disappointment.

"That was Ryan. He's got back up from the local police department and he is just a few hours away."

"That's great," Castle said without enthusiasm. He wanted that moment to have been frozen in time and it could just be the two of them, forever.

A knock echoed from the door. "You decent? I have your breakfast," an unrecognizable voice called out.

"I'm not really hungry," Castle mumbled under his breath as he looked at the floor.

"Eh. Me neither. Oh well." Kate whispered.

The door opened and two men with trays waked in. The men set the trays on a metal shelf with a clank then left. Kate and Castle walked over to the food and looked at it.

"What the hell is this? I mean I expected gross food but this... This is worse than what they give prisoners."

"How would you know what they serve in prison, Castle?" Kate asked with a smile.

"Well you know I wasn't in jail. The first time we met you read my file and you acknowledged the fact that every time I was arrested my charges were dropped. Then  
you asked me about a small claims lawyer to which I responded most of my claims were on the large side," Castle looked off into the distance, fond of the memories.

"Man I miss those days. No, I know what they serve in prison because I was doing research for a book. I went in to observe some of the aspects of prison life. Remind me never to go to prison."

"Okay. Will do," Kate chuckled. Castle swirled his fork around the green and yellow marbled mush, stabbing the few lumps that were hidden in the dense glop of "food." He dropped his fork onto his plate. He walked to the bed and plopped himself down with a sigh. He dropped his head in his hands. A somber mood filled the room. Kate walked over to the bed and knelt down in front of him.

"Hey," she whispered, "what's wrong?"

She reached out and gently removed one of the hands hiding his face. Castle put on a brave face not just to impress Kate, but also to calm himself down. He looked up into her eyes, her protective, concerned, worried eyes. He broke. Tears ran down his face, a stream of pent up emotion. Kate took her thumb and wiped the tears from his cheek. She knew what he was dealing with. His father was murdered, he was chased and almost killed in her apartment, his father's friend betrayed him, they had a lead which only led to their capture, he had no progress on who his father's murderer is, only some abstract idea of what the murder was related to, he was at a dead end. Almost exactly like her mother's case: Johanna Beckett murdered, case went cold, Kate spent her career trying to find the killer, and she knew she was getting closer because people were trying to kill her. She knows exactly how Castle feels. Maybe, just maybe, they can catch Castle's dad's killer because Castle is family and she wants at least one of them to get justice for one of their lost parents. Kate was lost in how similar Castle's situation is to hers. She felt a new connection between the two of them. Something that the two of them can relate to that is unique to only them.

She stopped thinking. She threw her arms around Castle and just held him. She readjusted herself to be more comfortable, so she can completely wrap him in her embrace. She lifted one leg, wrapped it behind his back and did the same with the other leg. Their chests were now lined up completely and she was on his lap. Kate didn't care at all that she had given in so deeply into her emotions right now. Castle needed her. Just needed her embrace. Kate's arm began to rub circles on Castle's back. "Thank you, Kate."

"Always," Kate whispered into Castle's ear and kissed him delicately on the cheek. "We'll get through this. Together. I'm not going anywhere. I promise." Kate looked into Castle's eyes. Saw all of the pain, torture, and sadness he has endured. She's only ever seen him like this one other time, when she rejected him in the hospital after he hurled himself on top of her in an effort to take a bullet for her. She knew this was her chance to show him that she really was there for him.

She swallowed any doubt that she had. She removed her hand from his back and brought both hands to cup his cheeks. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she pressed her lips against his. Castle, at first taken back, closed his eyes and kissed Kate back knowing she let all of her walls down and built up a massive amount of courage to show her feelings and emotions this fully. They only broke apart to catch their breaths. Kate opened her eyes to find Castle's blue eyes gazing right back into hers. She noticed the way his eyes glistened and portrayed all of the raw, loving emotion he was unable to express by using his unending arsenal of adjectives, metaphors, imagery, or any other literary device available to a writer; she knew the emotions because she felt the exact same way. "Wow," she smiled.


	14. Vroom Vroom

A sharp sound rung through the basement. "Oh god what is that?" Castle screamed trying to be heard above the noise.

"You think I know? I'm as clueless as you. Maybe it's a warning alarm," Kate yelled equally as loud.

"Get out! We're leaving now!" Nikolai screamed as he burst through the door. Nikolai ran into the room with several body guards and Peter. Nikolai unlocked the handcuffs not knowing Kate had already managed to free her and Castle from the restraints. In the meantime, two of the guards went to Castle and Kate and grabbed their arms and ushered them out of the room. As they were walking out Kate turned her head and saw Nikolai, Peter, and the other three guards were tossing the room.

"Kate, what are they doing?"

"I think they're tossing the room." Kate turned her head to the guard on her right, "what's going on?"

"I can no tell you," the guard said in a thick Russian accent.

"If it involves our well being we deserve to know. You wouldn't want us killed on YOUR watch, now, would you?" Kate asked trying to guilt information out of the guard.

"I can no tell you miss. You are prisoner. I not allowed." The guard spoke with such an accent and poor grammar that it sounded like her was just learning the language. Castle knew exactly how to use this as leverage.

"Excuse me sir? Your accent would like you haven't been in the U.S. very long. Do you have a family back in your home country? I have a family. I have a little girl. Her name's Alexis," Castle says as he reaches into his pocket.

"Hey! What are you doing? I must see your hand!" the guard quickly says.

"Relax, please, I'm just trying to show you a picture of my daughter," Castle takes his hand out of his pocket with a small folded paper. He unfolds the paper and shows the guard a picture of a red headed girl smiling up at a younger version of Castle. "I always keep a picture of Alexis with me. She's my pride and joy. I don't know what I would do without her. I couldn't imagine moving to a new country away from her. I don't know how you did it. Are you trying to get money to bring them here?" Castle genuinely asks.

"Yeah," the guard says as he reaches into his own pocket, "this is Sophia and Misha." He points to the two girls in the picture.

"They're beautiful. I bet you love them. And miss them. If you were in a situation like I am wouldn't you ask to know what is going on so you can try and stay alive for you little girls? I want to be there for the rest of Alexis's life and I bet you want to be there for your daughters too when they come to the U.S.

"The only reason I want to know what's going on is so I can't mentally prepare myself if I won't be with my daughter anymore. Or maybe protect myself for any threat that may cause me to miss watching my little girl grow up. Will you help me? Should I start preparing for that? Why are we being taken?" Castle tries his hardest to pull the emotional card

"I tell you only for your daughter. Police know we are here. We must move. Peter looks for how police know."

"Thank you. So there is no threat we are just moving, right?"

"Yes. And we must hurry. Car is this way." The burly guards usher Kate and Castle down several long dark hallways before entering a large metal door. Inside is a concrete room much like the one Beckett and Castle were situated minus the bed, refrigerator and toilet. There were three black SUV's all with tinted windows. Kate and Castle were luckily shoved into the same vehicle. They sat alone in the third row where they could stay in touch with Ryan. If Kate couldn't text him, she could keep her phone on so he can track it.

Peter and Nikolai were in the middle row of the SUV and the two body guards that escorted Castle and Beckett here from their room were in the driver's and passenger's seat. The car was completely silent, a very uncomfortable silence. In his usual Castle ways he tried to lessen the silence with some small talk. "So, how's the bomb coming along, Peter?"

"Oh, shut up. It's none of your business." Peter said harshly.

"Geez, I'm sorry I was just trying to start up some small talk. It's getting boring and lonely. No need to get all salty about it." Castle replied with a tiny bit of hurt in his voice.

"Salty? What is salty? I do not understand you Americans." Nikolai said jumping into the conversation.

"Salty. My daughter Alexis taught me it. She said that if I use it I'll be cool. It means... It means... Hmm... She described it as someone being mad for no reason or because they did something stupid. Can I borrow your phone? I want to ask Alexis for a definition." Castle looked from Peter to Nikolai then back to Peter. He put on his best puppy dog face and even batted his eyes for effect. Kate couldn't help but giggle. Peter looked at Nikolai who shrugged in a "whatever, sure" kind of way.

"Fine. Here. Text her because the call will drop and I really want to know what this word 'salty' means. God, you Americans are so strange. I want to stick you in a zoo." Peter handed Castle his iPhone.  
 _  
Hey Lex. It's daddy. I'm going to send you two messages erase this once you see it. Beckett and I have been kidnapped and taken hostage. We are fine right now. I tricked the guy to give me his phone so I could ask you a question which will be my next text. Have Detective Ryan track this number. Okay love you._

"Are you done yet?" Peter asked.

"No. Sorry. I'm not used to a Russian keyboard or whatever language it was so I changed the keyboard to a more Castle friendly one."  
Castle deleted the first message he sent Alexis.  
 _  
Hey Lex. It's daddy. What does salty mean? I called the Russian it and he wants to know what it means and I'm obviously not cool enough to know._

"Okay. I'm just waiting for a reply now."

Castle took this time to search the phone. He found the tracking app and with his somewhat decent technological skills he was able to set the date back to when his father was killed. He got a location on not only his phone, but all of those registered to his account, meaning all of his guards, drivers, lab rats and even Nikolai. There were at least ten numbers. Castle's eyes grew wider than he thought possible. He needed to show Kate.

"Hey Peter. Can I move to the next seat over? My legs are really cramped. I think it would be better if I can stretch them out in the aisle."

"Sure, whatever," Peter said. He seemed preoccupied at the moment so Castle took this opportunity to show Kate the phone. He pointed to the screen. Kate looked and was immediately taken back. They two of them searched through the map to find where, relatively, Castle's father was. Both Kate and Castle's mouths dropped. Bingo. There were not one, not two, but three phones in the area Castle thinks his father was killed. Castle returned the map setting to figure out where they were currently headed so he could alert Ryan and Esposito even though they are supposed to be tracing the number currently.  
 _  
Ping ping ping_

The phone got a text.

"Oh hey Peter, Alexis texted me back," Castle read the text aloud, "Salty: when a person gets upset and angry when that person does something stupid or has something stupid done to them. I hope you expanded your vocabulary a little today." Castle grinned.

Castle leaned to Kate's ear and whispered, "we're headed northeast on Route 87 toward Newark. Can you let Ryan know somehow? And I was right Peter did hire someone to kill my father if not he did it himself." Castle scooted back into his seat.

Now Kate leaned over to Castle, kissed his cheek and whispered, "We'll get him when Ryan and Espo come. And we're a couple remember...act like it. We can't blow it. Not for you and not fit your dad. We've come this far we can't ruin it now." Kate stayed where she was, their bodies touching and plenty of space around them.

"Can I have my phone back? I want to play Angry Birds. We have a long drive ahead of us," Peter yawned.

Kate took that as an invitation for a nap. She rested her head on Castle's chest, curled into a ball and fell asleep with Castle following not too far behind.


	15. Ryan (and Espo) to the Rescue

Much like the other morning, Kate and Castle woke up to the sound of sirens. Only this time, they were police sirens. Kate looked back to see two blue and whites and Ryan and Espo's Crown Vic in pursuit. Kate tapped Castle's shoulder and motioned her head toward the back window. "Look. It's Ryan and Espo," she whispered into his ear. They both turned around. Kate noticed the blue and whites were quickly gaining on the large SUV. One of the Crown Vics was accelerating at a high pace and started pulling out to the side.

"Castle, put your seatbelt on, now."

Castle knew Kate well enough that she meant business and was trained. He followed her around long enough to do what he's told without asking questions.

"Relax. Impact hurts less when your muscles are loose. We learned how to these work in training." Kate looked over her shoulder; the blue and white was in position to execute a pit maneuver. "All you have to do is breathe. Deep breaths. In... Out..." Castle closed his eyes and slowly inhaled and exhaled in time with Kate.

The cop in the blue and white sharply turned his wheel and hit he left rear bumper of the SUV causing it to spin out of control. The guard driving the SUV tried to correct the vehicle's path, but overcompensated and made the SUV spin out and crash into the guard rail on the other side of the road. Castle opened his eyes. His head was rushing and he struggled to focus on any one thing until his eyes rested on Kate. Her head was against the window. Her eyes were closed.

"Kate... Kate..." He waited for a response, a groan, movement, anything. He unbuckled himself and her as well. He carefully reached around to lift her head. He supported her head as he lifted her from her slouched position and leaned her against his side. Once he saw the other side of her body he knew they needed to get out of the car quickly. Kate had a gash on her scalp, just after her hairline. There was a stream of blood running down her face.

"No. Kate. No, please. Not like this," Castle whispered into the air. "Stay with me Kate. Please. I love you."  
Castle felt the body stir beneath his steady arm.

"Castle?" Kate said in a weak voice. "Are you okay?"

"Oh Kate." Castle squeezes her into a hug. "I'm not at all worried about me. I'm more worried about you. You have. Gash on your scalp that really needs to get looked at. Castle takes off his shirt and puts in on the cut. Here put some pressure on it to help the bleeding subside."

"Thanks Castle" Kate said with a smile. She put her hand on top of Castle's and held his hand shirt in place.

"Always Kate," Castle smiled.

The back seat doors were pulled open and guns were swinging around in the car and hands flew in the air. Espo and Ryan peaked their heads around the car.  
"Get an EMT right now! Beckett's bleeding!" Esposito yelled from the driver's side door.

"Espo I'm fine. It's just a little cut," Kate murmured in an attempt to down play the situation, but Castle was an over her shaking his head. Espo, Ryan and two blue and whites began handcuffing the four foreign passengers. Ryan and Espo gave their two convicts to some other blue and whites to help Kate out of the car. Castle followed Kate out of the car and to the ambulance that just pulled up to the scene.

"What happened, Castle?" Ryan asked while Kate was getting her head looked at by the paramedics.

"When I was in Chicago and I got a call from my dad and he was shot and killed while on the phone with me. So I came home early from my tour and asked Beckett to help me to find his killer. I never expected anything bad to happen," Castle tried to explain. He started to ramble and words were coming out of his mouth a mile a minute, "But then we found out the Russians were involved. And they were planning a terrorist attack. Then we got kidnapped. Then Beckett got hurt and now we're here. I didn't think anyone would get hurt. I'm so sorry." Castle was out of breath and on the verge of crying. He stepped up into the ambulance. "I'm so sorry, Kate. I'm so sorry." Castle pushed the stray hairs out of her face as he sat down next to her.

Kate smiled up at him, "I know. It's okay. We caught your dad's killer that's all that matters. And not that we have Peter in custody, he can't finish the bomb to attack New York." Kate smiled lovingly up at Castle.

Castle kissed Kate's cheek, "One day we will catch your mom's killer I promise."


End file.
